Servicing and maintenance of forks lifts may not be an interesting and engaging business for a woman to be in, but Ms. Parvathy preferred a similar line for her. Right from her early days, she grew up watching her father, Mr. R. Vaidyanathan, sell and service machines and construction equipments. Today, she is running Orient Construction Equipments and Engineering (OCEE) started by her father in 2005. Clearly, Coimbatore’s entrepreneurial bug has stung Ms. Parvathy, who is quite passionate about what she is doing.
OCEE is the authorized dealer for Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.’s Material Handling Equipment (MHE) Division in Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tirupur, Erode and Salem districts. “I’ve always been fascinated by machines and the way it works around in the factories. The fact that Indian textile companies are today competing in the global stage and exporting to some of the top global brands is truly inspiring”, says Ms. Parvathy.
An Engineering Graduate from the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology and an MBA from NIT Trichy, Ms. Parvathy joined the business in 2008 to handle MHE business of Godrej. Since then she has played an important role in the growth of the business in the region. In recognition of her efforts, Godrej has also expanded the coverage from Coimbatore up to Salem. With over 600 material handling equipments in this region, OCEE takes care of the complete service, maintenance and spares for all these machines. The company has a 15-member sales and service team to cater to the requirements in the region.
With its administrative office, MHE sales office, central stores and training centre in Coimbatore, the company also has two fully-equipped service centres, one in Coimbatore and the other in Salem, to cater to customers in Tirupur, Salem, Erode and Perundurai. OCEE is presently handling 3S (Sales, Service and Spares) for various material handling equipments of Godrej & Boyce.
Ms. Parvathy is not the typical CEO sitting in an air-conditioned office and running the business. She meets her clients on a daily basis, monitoring the operations of the machines supplied on the shop floor. “This helps me stay connected with my clients and also helps in understanding and responding to their requirements better”, she says.
Godrej Material Handling is India’s largest manufacturer of lift trucks. Its product range covers electric, LPG and diesel counter-balanced forklifts of up to 35 tonnes capacity, warehouse trucks and special trucks for specific applications. It also manufactures attachments for addressing a wide range of handling applications, besides offering attachments made by international specialists in the field.
Ms. Parvathy and her team have established a strong market for Godrej’s MHE business in this region, and her company has now appointed OCEE as distributors for Godrej’s warehouse and storage solutions, which is another fast growing segment. Many textile units, particularly in garments and home textiles, are looking at automated warehousing solutions for storage of their finished products across various sizes and product categories.
“An efficient multi-level storage solution is becoming increasingly imperative. This helps save a lot of floor space and also easy access and retrieval of goods. We are very excited about the opportunity this segment offers”, she adds.
Ms. Parvathy’s husband, Mr. Ramesh Sivam, runs Electro Controls, authorized dealers for Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd., Pune, and Auto Ignition Ltd., Faridabad.
Sales and service of engineering and industrial equipment clearly seem to be the family’s forte. With such valuable experience gained during her early years in business, Ms. Parvathy is all set to make a mark for herself in the chosen path. We wish her the very best in all her future endeavours.